


Buzzfeed Unsolved: The Mysterious Disappearance of Tulip Olsen

by inkyandness



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Infinity Train (Cartoon)
Genre: Based On Buzzfeed Unsolved, Buzzfeed Unsolved True Crime, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 04:49:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21404464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkyandness/pseuds/inkyandness
Summary: “This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved, we’re discussing the mysterious disappearance of Tulip Olsen, the 12-year-old girl who inspired a 7-month-long man-hunt, only to reappear...Changed.”
Relationships: Ryan Bergara & Shane Madej
Comments: 16
Kudos: 254





	Buzzfeed Unsolved: The Mysterious Disappearance of Tulip Olsen

“This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved, we’re discussing the mysterious disappearance of Tulip Olsen, the 12-year-old girl who inspired a 7-month-long man-hunt, only to reappear...Changed.” 

“I like how you said changed.” Shane said.

“Yeah, it’s ominous, there’s a bunch of weird stuff going on with this case.” Ryan restated. “I almost considered this for a supernatural episode, but I decided against it at the last second.”

“Why?”

“Oh, you’ll see.”

Shane sighed. “Oh, I guess I  _ will  _ see. I guess I  _ will  _ see.”

“Please stop saying it like that.”

“I’m gonna see it, Ryan.”

“Alright.”

-

_ “It all started on November 26th, in Minnesota, when 12-year-old Tulip was coming home from school. She had plans to go to a game design camp over the subsequent break, however, from what Megan Olsen, her mother, had to say, apparently due to a conflict in scheduling with her ex-husband, neither would be able to take her, and because of that, Tulip was devastated. She went missing shortly after that.” _

_ - _

“It sucks when that sort of thing happens.” Shane said.

“What?”

“Like, you get excited about something as a kid, and then your parents cancel it or say no, and it’s like the biggest, most devastating thing in the world because you’re like 5 and you don’t have a sense of scope-”

“5? I’ve said like three times that this girl was 12.”

“I know, I know, but, you know, when you’re young you don’t have that sense of scope, but also you have to depend on your parents for everything, so when they disappoint you it feels like, that much worse, like you can’t trust them.”

“Okay, that’s true, and you said some deeply relatable stuff here, however, I’m still stuck on the fact that you think there isn’t that much difference between a 5-year-old and a 12-year-old.”

“I mean, I think I had around the same freedoms from when I was 5 to when I was 12. I knew a kid who wasn’t allowed to go outside a lot, and she wasn’t allowed to go outside at night, because there were coyotes and bullies. We were buds. Best friends almost.”

Ryan just stares at Shane for a moment. “I feel like that explains a lot about you.”

“There was a weird kid in that kid’s neighborhood who my parents called “The Polish Mafia” because he was Polish, and he would stab the eyes out of still living fish when he like reeled them in while fishing. And then would just leave it there to die”

“Jesus christ.”

“Yeah. He left them all over our backyard, too.”

“Well alright then.”

-

_ “Tulip Olsen was missing for months on end, and given that she left before a big snowfall hit Minnesota that day, if she made her way on foot, there would be no tracks to be found, so in the hours that it took to realize that Tulip was missing, all trace of her was gone, and given that Minnesota temperatures can drop to as low as -25 degrees fahrenheit, the probability of her surviving outside for long in those brutal temperatures was also slim to nil.” _

_ - _

“Okay Ryan, I gotta admit, this does not sound...Great.”

“It’s not.”

“Like, I know winter, and I know those winters, and if it was that cold, schools would be closed.”

“It must be brisk then.”

“Oh, yeah.  _ Definitely _ brisk. Some may even dare to say...chilly.”

“I guess they do.”

-

_ “Tulip’s parents as well as her best friend, Mikayla, were devastated at the news of her disappearance, and called in the police the next day to file a missing person’s case. The police also used the opportunity to comb over the 5-mile perimeter from the Olsen household, still finding nothing. The good news? They didn’t find a body. Bad news? They didn’t find a body. Mikayla would go on to later speak out about her friend’s disappearance online, and create a viral post regarding her disappearance, that would go on to get 4.9 million views.” _

_ - _

“4.9 million? Dang.” Shane said, a little too impressed.

“I feel like you’re focusing on the wrong aspect of this whole ordeal.”

“Do our videos even get that many views? I haven’t checked recently.”

“Yeah, but we’re just two knuckleheads making our living in murder, this is a missing person-“

“Yeah, it’s a missing person, and it’s sad and all, but, still. If you just disappeared off the face of the Earth for a few months, we would totally kill the YouTube algorithm.”

“I don’t like the implications of what you’re suggesting. You implied my disappearance and killing very close together.

“Just...Think about it, Ryan. Don’t you want that diamond play button? Don’t you want to be a cool kid?”

Ryan looked at Shane for a solid moment in a sort of incredulous disbelief. “No!”

-

_ “No matter what Tulip’s friends and family did, it all seemed so hopeless. With no news, no findings, and nothing that would so much as imply that Tulip was ever alive at all, they began to lose hope, but the story doesn’t end there. In June of the next year, almost 7 months later, Tulip Olsen made her way back to her mother’s doorstep, a little stressed, but otherwise, not worse for wear.” _

-

“Hey! This is all great news! We don’t often get happy endings on true crime.”

“No, we don’t.”

“This is just a nice little surprise really. Like, you opened the story by telling me that she was gonna come back, but I got so caught up in the narrative of it all, I forgot.”

“I guess that’s what happens when you have a master storyteller to weave such webs for you.”

“Or the story was just that good.”

“Or maybe that.”

-

_ “Although the story ends there, the family has reported that Tulip’s been exhibiting some “odd behavior” since she’s come back. She has the tendency to wear a glove on one hand, but will take it off if anybody mentions it to her, she carries around a lead pipe near constantly, she’s picked up pieces of French, and, most notably of all,  _ ** _she has no reflection._ ** _ ” _

-

“Look, I can’t explain the other stuff outside of odd quirks, I mean, I knew a kid who wore a baseball cap even when they slept, but is there the slightest chance imaginable, that she’s just getting super into Duolingo?” Shane proposed.

“How does getting super into Duolingo translate into you losing your reflection???”

“I dunno, have you seen that owl online? I have no idea WHAT he’s capable of.”

-

_ “Theories regarding Tulip’s reappearance vary, as the only theory seeming worth its salt being that she was abducted by aliens-“ _

-

“-No, no, no, no, no. We’re ABSOLUTELY not doing this.”

“Well, unless she became a vampire while she was gone, I don’t have a lot of answers here.”

“Oh, so we’re doing vampires now?”

“Absolutely not.”

“So there  _ are _ limits to what you’re willing to believe…”

“Oh my god. Do  _ you _ have any other theories?”

“Oh, no. No. Nah. I just want to know what other plausible theories are out there, like, a glitch in the matrix.”

“Other plausible theories?”

“Yeah.”

“Like a glitch in the matrix?”

“Yeah.” 

Ryan had a look in his eye that would soon be regarded as perfect regret.png material, “alright.”

-

_ “Nobody knows where Tulip was for the seven months she was away, and Tulip herself seemed hesitant to reveal such things, often saying that, “nobody would believe her” or that she doesn’t know if she’s “come back yet,” though there may be a definitive answer in the future if she feels safe enough to reveal it...  _

-

_ ...Regardless, this case is, at the moment, Unsolved.”  _

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: Any time Shane mentions a "weird kid he knew growing up" and their stories, that's just me. That's just my life. I don't go outside and I wore a baseball cap every day for 3 years. 
> 
> Tumblr:  
https://juliastartoons.tumblr.com


End file.
